Virender Sehwag is India. India is Virender Sehwag

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It was the 2011 World Cup semis, India were playing Pakistan at Mohali, and opted to bat first. I was in 9th grade and came home running from school to watch the match. But you should know that school is a stone's throw away from home, so the running wasn't much of an athletic achievement. But enough about my jaw dropping fitness. As i entered the living room, I saw Sehwag smash Pakistan's spearhead Umar Gul for a four through mid on, and a mischievous smile grew on my face, an expression that none but Sehwag can induce. He clobbered Gul for 4 fours that over, and India's batting was off to an electric start.

As reports of Sehwag's retirement made themselves known, there weren't words enough to capture my sadness. Yes, he was inconsistent. Yes, he was growing old. But he was still the most destructive batsman the world has seen, perhaps in the class of Viv Richards, the West Indian maverick. Sehwag made purists and technical pundits look like dinosaurs. A batsman is always supposed to move his feet and get to the pitch of the ball. Sehwag would, without moving an inch, send the ball flying past the fielders, through the boundary, and would have a nonchalant smile on his face, or just expressionless, as if conveying "Yes, I'm brilliant. Get used to it."

With a magical hand eye coordination, he pulverised the best of bowlers- Brett Lee, Dale Steyn, Muttiah Muralitharan, Stuart Broad and Daniel Vettori among others.

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The earliest I remember seeing Sehwag live, is in what turned out to be one of the best Test innings of all time. In the summer of 2008, in the heat of Chennai, Sehwag scored 319, with the triple coming up in a single day's play, against a bowling attack consisting of Makhaya Ntini, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. It was the kind of innings where even sitting at home and watching him play those shots sent a tingle up your spine. Even against the fastest of bowlers, he could get into position in a flash and have the option of playing one particular ball in multiple ways. A ball on off stump just short of length could be flicked to the onside, or he could made space for himself and cut it over point. Or he would advance down the pitch and go straight over the bowler's head.

But what distinguished the Nawab of Najafgarh was his absolute fearlessness. While this got him out cheaply many a time, more often than not, it gave India the rollicking start that would give them momentum for a good total. As he himself has said, "Irrespective of the ball or the bowler, if it is there to be hit, I'll hit it." That attitude is what got him his 8500 test runs at a phenomenal strike rate of 82. They say that numbers don't lie. I have to disagree. Many times in his career, Sehwag has got out in the 20s and 30's,clearly regarded as a failure and not being able to make use of a good start. But when Sehwag gets his 25 odd runs, he gets them at run a ball, if not better. What this does is, reduce the pressure on his fellow opener as well as the batsman to follow, specially in ODIs and T20s,because if you don't have to worry about the run rate, then it is much easier to construct a solid innings and score a big one. Which is why, every time Sehwag has scored a 15 ball 25 and Gambhir or Tendulkar score a patient 50 or 100, Sehwag deserves a part of the credit.

In 2008 against Sri Lanka in their backyard, India was all out for around 300 in the first innings. Out of those 300, Sehwag made 200. While the rest of the team, which included stalwarts like Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman failed to read the bowling of Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis, Sehwag played as if he alone is playing on a different surface against a different bowling attack. When our apparent God, Tendulkar was struggling to read the turn, at the other end, Sehwag was hitting boundaries at will. No other batsman can do that. The fact that on that day, he transcended all bowling, all turn and bounce and simply clobbered a double century is testimony to the man's talent and approach towards the game.

The reason a guy like Sehwag always makes me chuckle is his amazing amazing attitude. He's not very serious or composed like Dravid(not to take any credit away from Dravid, a legend in his own right). He's not very flamboyant either, like Yuvraj Singh or Virat Kohli. He comes, does his job, and even if he doesn't, he smiles that devil-may-care smile that audiences have grown to cheer and adore.

You may be wondering about the title of this article. Let me explain. Virender Sehwag is like India. He is brilliant but erratic. He is loved and hated by many. India as a country has always had tremendous potential, in some ways much more than USA and China, but it is only recently that we are realising that potential - economically, socially, politically. Sehwag is the same way. After being inconsistent in the beginning, he settled into being the most consistently devastating batsman, a position I feel is held by AB De Villiers today. India is not the most balanced or rational country in the world. Our activities are horrible and genius in equal measures, just like Sehwag's batting, genius when he is on song, and when he is being irresponsible, it makes you want to tear your hair off.

You were a class act, Viru. Thank you for all the memories.

Written by Sriram Mani